Who Was That?
by 2originalcents
Summary: Jack Tenorman has a lot of mixed feelings about his son, Eric. [Sort of sequel/prequel to No One]


**I'm currently working on a long fic and should not be spending time writing something else, but dammit I couldn't resist! **

**This is a sort of sequel/prequel to No One. You don't have to read that fic first to get this one, but it'll add to the experience for sure.**

**Anyway, Enjoy! Reviews are appreciated and I own nothing!**

* * *

><p>"You're so strong," Liane said, panting and grasping at Jack Tenorman's jacket.<p>

"Well what did you expect?" he said, biting her breast.

Liane moaned and squeezed Jack's waist with her legs. She was sitting on the bathroom counter in a small bar, Jack standing as he thrusted into her. They had just met that evening, the first weekend in months that Jack had free to spend with his family he decided to grab a drink instead. Liane was sitting alone at the counter, watching the evening news when he approached her, dazzled her with his football player muscles and status, and took her to the bar bathroom, not even a hotel room.

Liane screamed when she orgasmed while Jack grunted.

"You said you were on the pill, right?" Jack asked as he pulled out, not having used a condom.

"Yeah," she said, leaning back as she caught her breath.

Jack zipped himself up while she pulled her skirt down and buttoned up her blouse again.

"Later," Jack said casually, patting Liane's thigh before leaving the bathroom.

"Mhmm," she replied, standing up and looking herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, so she tied it up in a bun using the hair band on her wrist. She walked out of the bathroom and bar in time to see Jack drive out of the parking lot. She reached her own car, and though normally she would drive to another bar in search of more fun, she decided to call it a night and went home.

…

**2 Months Later**

Liane was late. She had never been late before in her life. That was the one thing in her life that was in order, her menstrual cycle, and now, for whatever reason, she was late.

She told herself maybe it was an STD, maybe she wasn't eating properly, maybe she was entering early menopause. She ran all sorts of scenarios in her mind as she drove to a drug store and bought a pregnancy test, though she knew there was no way that was it.

The ninety seconds the test took to give a result felt like a century to Liane. She sat on her toilet in her underwear, head in her hands. But she had been so careful. She laced and unlaced her fingers together as she prayed to God it was negative and she just had some disease instead. She checked the clock in her bathroom and took a deep breath when the time had past. She stood up and slowly turned the test around on the counter. She covered her mouth to prevent the sob from escaping her lips. Positive. She was pregnant.

But maybe it was a hysterical pregnancy? Sometimes those happen. Liane shook her head, yes this was a hysterical pregnancy, so it's a false positive. She would go to the clinic tomorrow and explain everything to the doctor. He'll tell her the truth.

…

"No, you're pregnant pregnant. Congratulations!" The doctor said as he was looking at Liane's test results.

Liane's face fell and all she could think to say was, "Shit."

She got up, thanked the doctor, and went to her car.

A mother, she was going to be a mother. She, Liane Cartman, of all people, was going to have a baby.

She sat in her car and rubbed her forehead, trying hard to think what to do. Who could be the father? But she knew who the father was. It was the man she slept with the night she realized she forgotten to take her pill. But it was just one time, how could her body produce an egg so quickly? She drove home, but decided to go looking for Jack once the weekend came along.

…

Liane was nervous when she walked into the bar. She had gone to this bar a thousand and one times before, but this was the first time she felt truly nauseous when the stench of alcohol, cigarette smoke, and hint of urine hit her nostrils.

When she entered she saw a flash of red at the bar, and almost laughed with relief. She walked straight towards Jack and sat next to him.

"Oh, hi," Jack said, turning to her and smiling pleasantly.

"Hi," Liane said, smiling tentatively, not sure how to go about this. "Uhm, can we speak somewhere more privately?"

"Sure," Jack said, taking a final swig of his beer before following her to the bathroom. "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about you," he said once they were in the bathroom.

"That's nice," she said, and looked down at her hands. She took a deep breath, there was no proper way to say this so she decided to blurt it out. "I'm pregnant."

Jack cocked his eyebrows and shrugged. "Congratulations?"

"It's yours," Liane said, annoyed at his response despite herself.

Jack chuckled. "Oh sure, pin it on the football star. Classic move."

"I'm not pinning anything on you, I'm just telling you what happened."

"And I'm suppose to just believe you? Believe that I impregnated the woman who slept with me in some skeevy bar bathroom? Answer me this, how many guys did you sleep with that week alone?"

"Look, Jack. When I went home that night I realized I had forgotten to take my pill that day and only that day. You have to be the father, I didn't sleep with anyone else for another week after."

Jack crossed his arms, his expression darkening. "Abort it," he said, his tone final.

Liane looked at him like he had just slapped her. "No!"

"Well I have a wife and a son. Let's say I believe you and I did knock you up, I don't fucking want it and have it ruin my marriage and career. Do you honestly fucking want it?"

"They're a baby, not an 'it'," Liane mumbled.

"Jesus Christ." Jacked wiped his face with both his hands. "I want a paternity test," he said before storming out of the bathroom, leaving Liane alone.

…

Within a week the paternity test was in, and it was a positive match, Jack Tenorman was the father of the child Liane was going to have.

"Abort it," Jack said again, pacing in the bar bathroom that has become their rendezvous point.

"No," Liane said, shaking her head.

"Abort it," he repeated, stopping in front of Liane. "If this is about money, name your price, but you _cannot_ have this child!"

"I don't want money it's just that… I've never had an abortion and I'm not starting now," Liane said, shrugging like this decision is that simple.

"I don't believe that! How many other children do you have then?"

"None, I've never gotten pregnant before!"

Jack groaned and ran his hands through his hair.

"How much do you want to keep me out of this kid's life? I can't have this coming up later!"

"Nothing. I don't want anything. I won't bother you with my baby, I just wanted you to know about them. I'll leave you alone now," Liane said, her voice small. She walked out of the bathroom and waited until she was in her car to cry.

…

**7 Months Later **

The nurses left Liane alone in her room, her newborn son in her arms. The baby was sleeping against her chest, and she gently ran her fingers through his short tuft of hair. She was scared out of her mind, she was officially a single mother, something she never expected to be. But she was also happy and excited. With her son in her arms, she was never going to be alone again. She had a lifelong friend now, someone who'll always be there for her, someone who'll love her unconditionally.

There was a knock on the door and she was jolted from her reverie.

"Yes?" she called out.

Jack poked his head through the door, a stuffed frog in his hands.

"What do you want?" Liane asked, her voice harsher than she intended.

"I, uh, I know a nurse. I told him to call me the moment a woman named Liane was admitted to give birth," he said, walking slowly towards them.

"You shouldn't be here, you want nothing to do with him, right?" Liane said, her expression stern.

"C'mon, Liane. You know why I can't be a part of this kid's life."

"No, I don't, actually."

Jack sighed, he looked tired. He swallowed and looked at the baby in Liane's hands and the corner of his mouth turned up in a smile.

"What's their name?"

"Eric," Liane said, smiling herself when she looked down at her son. "Is that for him?" she asked, nodding towards the stuffed frog in Jack's hand.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, it's a pretty silly gift, but I didn't really know what else to get." He handed her the toy. "Look, I know you said you don't want money, but you're going to need it now. I'll be able to give you some cash monthly for his expenses. Is that okay?" He reached for her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.

"In exchange for silence, right?" Liane said.

Jack didn't answer. He let go of her and lightly touched Eric's head.

"Right," he said.

Liane wished she could kick him out. Spit in his face and tell him to shove his money up his own ass, but holding her son in her hands, she realized she would need help. She barely made enough to sustain herself, to rely solely on her own income to pay for Eric's expenses was overwhelming.

She bit the inside of her cheek and swallowed the sob in her throat.

"Okay," she said, slightly nodding.

Jack nodded, but his expression was serious. "Well, first thing's first, you don't have to worry about a hospital bill."

"Thank you."

"I don't want to make any false promises, but maybe later on, once I've retired…" Jack trailed off.

Liane nodded. "I won't hold my breath."

…

**2 Years Later**

Liane was in the kitchen, busy making dinner when the phone rang.

"Hello?" she said when she picked up.

"Liane Cartman? This is Margaret Tenorman, Jack's wife," the woman on the other line said, her voice even.

Liane felt like the wind had been knocked out of her lungs.

"Hello," was all she thought to say.

"We need to talk. Preferably today."

Liane swallowed. "I'm free right now."

"Perfect. I'll be there in a few minutes." There was a click and Margaret had hung up.

Liane felt the ground shift beneath her and she grabbed the wall for balance. Jack's wife was coming over. Did she know? Of course she knew! Why else would she bother coming? But did Jack know? Quickly Liane picked up her phone and dialed Jack, but he didn't pick up.

She felt tears spring in her eyes and she quickly wiped them away. No. No she wasn't going to cry, she was going to give this woman the satisfaction. She took deep breaths when the doorbell rang.

_That was quick_, she thought. She walked towards the door and smiled at Eric, who was quietly watching television on the couch.

Liane opened the door, and she felt her blood rushing in her ears when she saw Scott. He was the spitting image of his father, and her stomach always twisted in knots when she saw him, the legitimate son.

"Come in," she said as she stepped aside to make room for them. "I'll make some tea, the boys can play upstairs," she said, already walking towards the kitchen, but she stopped when she saw Margaret standing still. "Do you not want the two to interact? He can sit in the kitchen with us and hear everything instead."

Margaret clenched her jaw, but said, "Fine. Scott, can you go upstairs and play with-"

"Eric," Liane said quickly when she heard Margaret's hesitation. So Jack didn't even bother to tell her his son's name. "My son's name is Eric."

"Go play with him," Margaret said, pushing her son towards Eric before turning to Liane and heading towards the kitchen with her.

"So to what do I owe the pleasure?" Liane said, a false smile on her lips as she put the kettle on the stove.

"Save it, whore," Margaret sneared. "How old is your bastard?"

"His name is Eric and he's two," Liane said, turning to her and balling her hands into fists.

Margaret let out a humorless chuckle and crossed her arms. "Two? Fucking two years you've been taking my money?"

"I haven't taken anyone's money."

"Well you sure as fuck aren't anymore. After demanding he deal with the finances himself for so long, I finally checked in on our bank account and noticed a cool thousand missing from our account every month. I come to find out it's going to some woman named Liane Cartman, and Jack finally confesses everything to me. Well this ends now. You'll be getting no more money from Jack," she said.

"You can't do that, Jack's his father, Eric needs the money," Liane said in a rush.

"Yes I can, I'm his wife, the mother of his actual son. I told him I was willing to forgive all of this on the condition that he stopped giving you two money, or else I divorce him and take Scott far away from him. I also told him I would do him the favor of delivering this news to you myself."

"Why would you do this? What's a thousand dollars a month to the hundred thousands Jack makes a year? Eric doesn't have his father with him, Scott does! What's this one little trickle to you! Because you're not hurting me by doing this, you're hurting a small child!" Liane said, her voice rising with every word.

Margaret waved Liane's accusation away. "This wasn't a negotiation. You decided to keep the boy, now you deal with it." She turned on her heel and to the living room. "Scott!" she called out.

"No, please! You have to reconsider! I want nothing! I don't want to get in the way of your relationship with your husband! This is all for my son!"

"Not my problem, and I would appreciate your continued discretion on the matter or else."

Liane wanted to ask "Or else what?" when Scott and Eric came downstairs, holding hands. She felt her heart squeezing in her chest, and for a moment wondered how lovely it would be for her son to have a relationship with his older brother.

"Look what Scott made me!" Eric said as he rushed to his mother, a car constructed out of legos in his hand.

Liane crouched down to pick him up. "Wow, Scott's very talented."

"Let's go," Margaret said, grabbing Scott and dragging him out the door.

"Bye!" Eric called out, and waved to Scott, who turned around and waved back before he was out the door.

Liane smiled and closed the front door, which Margaret left open. She kissed Eric's temple and put him back down.

"You can keep watching tv, if you want, sweetheart. We'll eat dinner soon."

"Okay," Eric said as he went back to the couch.

Liane went back into the kitchen and took the kettle off the stove before it could whistle. She opened the faucet and let the rush of water cover up her sobs. It was already hard enough balancing work and time for her son, what Jack gave her helped a little, but it was no where near enough, and now that help was gone.

Liane rinsed her eyes and breathed deeply to stop crying. She figured she could go back to that old business that always paid so well. If she was discreet, Eric would never have to know. And what harm could it do? It was just sex, and the money from it would go straight to her son.

…

**2 Years Later**

"Hey dad!" Scott shouted, gleeful that his father came to pick him up from school.

"Hey son, how was school?" Jack asked.

As Scott put on his seatbelt and chatted happily about his day, Jack looked up in time to see Eric coming out of school, talking with a boy wearing an orange hooded parka. His hands tightened around his steering wheel. Eric was barely four and already Liane was making him take the school bus on his own instead of picking him up herself? But what choice did she have, she must be working right now.

"Dad, are you okay?" Scott asked, trying to follow the direction of his dad's stare.

Jack snapped out of it and remembered where he was.

"I'm okay, just got distracted. Anyway, you were telling me about PE?"

"Oh yeah!" That got Scott started on another tangent as Jack started up the car. He drove past the school and managed to see Eric get on the school bus as he drove Scott home.

…

**4 Years Later**

"Yeah, he came to me asking me if I was his father, too. But the math doesn't add up, he's eight, and the last time I slept with Liane was nine years ago," Chief Running Water told Chef over drinks.

"I can't help but feel bad for him. I wish I could help him, but his mother has slept with everyone in town," Chef said, shaking his head.

"Who are you guys talking about?" Jack asked, taking a swig of beer.

"Just this boy at the elementary school, his name's Eric Cartman," Chef replied.

Jack sputtered and coughed, almost choking on his beer.

"Woah, are you alright?" Chef asked, slapping Jack's back.

Jack nodded as he continued coughing. "Wrong pipe," he said in a hoarse voice, pointing at his throat.

"Well I heard Dr. Mephisto was going to do a DNA test on all the potential fathers," Chief Running Water said. "So he'll have a father soon enough."

Jack slammed a twenty on the bar counter before running out.

…

"So you're Eric Cartman's father?" Dr. Mephisto said, shocked.

"Yes, and he can't know. Nobody can know," Jack said, his hands on his hips as he explained everything to the doctor.

"Well, I don't know if I can do that, Mr. Tenorman. The boy deserves to know. What you decide to tell him afterwards is your own business."

Jack was going to continue arguing, when he felt a sting on his arm. "Ow!"

"Ah, thank you, Kevin," Dr. Mephisto said.

Kevin ran from Jack's side over to the doctor, placing a thin strand of Jack's arm hair on a petri dish the doctor was holding out to him.

"You can leave now, Mr. Tenorman," Dr. Mephisto said, walking into his lab with the DNA sample.

…

"You can't let him find out I'm his father!" Jack shouted at Liane in the safest place he knew, the bar bathroom.

"I've been trying to lead his trail elsewhere, what else do you want? He's persistent, he's going to find out," Liane said, her arms outstretched.

"No he isn't. I don't care what you do, but for both your sakes, he can't know."

"And what if he does?"

"I have no power over what'll happen. The scandal could be huge, and the NFL _will_ make it disappear before it has a chance to fully form."

Liane's eyes went wide.

"Jack, are you threatening to kill your son?"

"No! Of course not!" Jack shouted, growing frustrated. "I'm trying to explain that it'll be out of my hands! His safety! Yours! I won't be able to protect either if he finds out the truth."

"It's a fucking sport! It's your private life! Why would this 'scandal' jeopardize our lives?" Liane shouted back.

"It's because it's sports! Honestly Liane, do you know nothing about the world? How fucking crazy sports fans are? If we lose this season! And the fans decide to blame it on you and the boy...!" Jack shook his head, rubbing his face with his hand.

"He won't find out. I promise," Liane said, her voice soft but hard. "He won't find out what sort of coward his father is."

She stormed out of the bathroom and in her car she called Dr. Mephisto, but he told her the same thing he told Jack, that he was obligated to tell Eric the truth.

Jack decided to bite the bullet, and he told a few men in the bar the truth, that he was Eric's father and that he couldn't let Dr. Mephisto tell him the truth.

"Holy fuck," Garrison said when he heard the truth.

"Don't worry, I'll talk some sense into my brother," another man said. "I'll stop him and ensure this season goes off without a hitch."

…

"Jesus Christ," Jack said when Liane told him over the phone what happened, that Dr. Mephisto was shot before he could tell Eric the truth, and it appeared to have been his brother.

"I was able to talk to him alone," Liane continued. "I told him everything, that Eric was in danger, that he couldn't find out the truth. He said he understood and he came up with a plan-" Liane was cut off by her own sobbing.

"What plan?" Jack asked.

"He said he's going to say I'm a hermaphrodite and that I'm really Eric's father."

"That's a little convoluted."

"He was high on painkillers, what did you expect? Oh God, this is so horrible!" Liane wailed.

"I'm sorry. Look, I know this isn't going to resolve anything, but because of all these issues, Margaret has agreed to let me give you some extra money. As a thank you."

"Oh, fuck off, Jack!" Liane shouted before hanging up.

…

**6 Months Later**

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Liane shouted as someone knocked violently on the front door. She gasped when she saw it was Jack. "What do you want?" She asked, stepping out and closing the door behind her.

"I want to see him, I want to tell him the truth," Jack said.

"What?"

"I can't do this, anymore! This is all so fucked up! If I explain everything to him, maybe he'll keep it down, but he deserves to know!"

Liane was stunned, but she started shaking her head. "No."

"What do you mean no? Is this not what you wanted, too?"

"You can't jerk him around like this, Jack! You tell me to abort him and then you get him a stuffed toy! You give me a monthly income but don't put up a fight when your wife takes it away! Threaten his life and in a few months come back saying you want to be a part of it! No! Just no!"

"You can't keep me from him-"

"Do you have any idea how terrible this is for me?" Liane started, tears in her eyes as her voice shook. "How terrible it was for him to ask me, beg me to tell him who his father is, and practically name the entire town! To have him think I'm a hermaphrodite, not really his mother at all?! He's not just your son, Jack! He's mine too! And because of you I've lost all of his respect! Because I've been covering up for you! And now what? You want to swoop on in, with your fucking Denver Broncos fame and take him away from me? He'll hate me forever for hiding the truth from him!" She sobbed and covered her mouth with her trembling hand. "You have your wife and your own son with her. What do I have? I only have him. I'm so tired of all of this. I covered for you, now just leave us alone! Please! I don't want your money, I want your silence!"

Jack watched her and took deep breaths to calm himself down. He swallowed and slowly nodded.

"I understand. I didn't want this to be such a burden on you, and I'm sorry. Thank you for all that you've done. But if he ever does find out the truth, somehow, I'm sure he'll realized and appreciate how brave you are."

Jack turned away and got into his truck.

Liane wiped her eyes and took many deep breaths before going back inside.

"Who was that, Mom?" Eric asked as he came downstairs after hearing some ruckus outside.

"It was no one, dear," Liane smiled sweetly at her son. "Dinner's almost ready."

…

**1 Month Later**

Liane caught the end of her son's reveal. She ran into her home and leaned against the door, her lips trembling as her breaths came out as gasps. If she heard her son correctly, he got Jack and Margaret murdered and fed them to Scott.

Liane felt her stomach churn, her whole body was trembling.

"Holy fuck! Holy fuck! Holy fuck!" she whispered over and over again, slamming her hands against her eyes as tears sprung out.

She kept chanting that phrase over and over until her horror turned into giddiness.

"Holy fuck," she said, dropping her hands and cackling. "Holy fuck."

"That's what you get when you lie, Jack," she whispered before snorting and going into the kitchen to get started on dinner.


End file.
